SAN FRANCISCO'S BIRTHDAY ~ 1847

Today, January 30th, is the day that the sleepy little village of Yerba Buena changed its name to San Francisco in 1847 (the year before discovery of gold on January 24, 1848; the treaty of Guadelupe Hildago, which ended the Mexican American War, signed a week later on February 2, 1848; then the Gold Rush the following year in 1849—when the population surged from 800 to 80,000 in a single year; and California Statehood in 1850).

I had already known that January 30th was the anniversary of the beheading of Charles I outside Inigo Jones' glorious Banqueting House in Whitehall. But I hadn’t known that Oliver Cromwell was ceremoniously executed twelve years to the day after Charles. He had already been dead for two years! When I first went to the Henry VII chapel at the very end of Westminster Abbey, I was surprised to see a bronze plaque in the floor: "Oliver Cromwell 1659 -1661." What ... he was only two years old? Could this have been the grandson of the great Lord Protector and regicide of Charles I? Well no, it was the old Puritan himself.

He was buried there for two years until the Stuart Restoration. Charles II had him exhumed, beheaded, burned and drawn and quartered, then secretly scattered twelve years to the day after his father's execution ordered by Oliver Cromwell. Nothing like revenge!

Other notable deaths on this day were Crown Prince Rudolf at Meyerling in 1889, and Mahatma Gandhi in 1947.

The day also marked Adolf Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor in 1933 (of all things, on FDR's birthday, after he was elected in November, but before his inauguration in March 1933 – afterwards changed to January 20th because the electorate didn't want to wait so long for a transfer of power, especially during a Depression.)

Until I Googled, I hadn't known that such illustrious figures as FDR, Barbara Tuchman (a great American historian & one of my favorites), the extraordinary Vanessa Redgrave, and Christian Bale shared their birthdays on January 30th.

SAN FRANCISCO'S BIRTHDAY

Today, January 30th, is the day that the sleepy little village of Yerba Buena changed its name to San Francisco in 1847 (the year before discovery of gold on January 24, 1848; the treaty of Guadelupe Hildago, which ended the Mexican American War, signed a week later on February 2, 1848; then the Gold Rush the following year in 1849—when the population surged from 800 to 80,000 in a single year; and California Statehood in 1850).

I had already known that January 30th was the anniversary of the beheading of Charles I outside Inigo Jones' glorious Banqueting House in Whitehall. But I hadn’t known that Oliver Cromwell was ceremoniously executed twelve years to the day after Charles. He had already been dead for two years! When I first went to the Henry VII chapel at the very end of Westminster Abbey, I was surprised to see a bronze plaque in the floor: "Oliver Cromwell 1659 -1661." What ... he was only two years old? Could this have been the grandson of the great Lord Protector and regicide of Charles I? Well no, it was the old Puritan himself.

He was buried there for two years until the Stuart Restoration. Charles II had him exhumed, beheaded, burned and drawn and quartered, then secretly scattered twelve years to the day after his father's execution ordered by Oliver Cromwell. Nothing like revenge!

Other notable deaths on this day were Crown Prince Rudolf at Meyerling in 1889, and Mahatma Gandhi in 1947.

The day also marked Adolf Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor in 1933 (of all things, on FDR's birthday, after he was elected in November, but before his inauguration in March 1933 – afterwards changed to January 20th because the electorate didn't want to wait so long for a transfer of power, especially during a Depression.)

Until I Googled, I hadn't known that such illustrious figures as FDR, Barbara Tuchman (a great American historian & one of my favorites), the extraordinary Vanessa Redgrave, and Christian Bale shared their birthdays on January 30th.

CALIFORNIA GOLD DISCOVERED ~ January 24, 1848

1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered by James Wilson Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000, approximately 150,000 arrived by sea while the remaining 150,000 arrived by land.

Around the beginning of the Gold Rush, Mexican laws were no longer in effect, but there was very little law regarding property rights as the US had just taken over California land. Thus, California was forced to quickly develop various institutions. The solution to the property rights problem was a first-come-first-serve basis with the right to claim jump on abandoned sites.

The early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," (as a reference to 1849) traveled to California by sailing boat and in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. More sophisticated methods of gold recovery developed which were later adopted around the world. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of corporate to individual miners. Gold worth billions of today's dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with little more than they had started with.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a free state in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850.

New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service and railroads were built. The business of agriculture, California's next major growth field, was started on a wide scale throughout the state. However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional lands, and gold mining caused environmental harm.

Image & text:wikipedia.com

Note: the date is in the first month of 1848. But we don't say the "48'ers." That's because the people who discovered gold tried to keeep quiet about it because they figured they'd be overrun (and they were.) But more importantly, communication and transportation was so slow in the middle of the 19th Century that it took almost a full year for momentum to build for fortune seekers from around the world to come to California. But come they did. The population of the newly renamed town of San Francisco grew from 800 to 80,000 in a single year!

My Arrival in San Francisco ~ May 26, 1973

On Saturday afternoon May 26, 1973-- Memorial Day Weekend-- I arrived in San Francisco in my green 1967 VW van completely loaded with books, records, a sofa (primarily to keep all the boxes from sliding around) and my Dad's black and white cocker spaniel, EZ Dandy. The load was so heavy that top speed across flat Nebraska was about 48 MPH. I was completely exhausted after my eight day journey from Pennsylvania-- almost entirely on Interstate Route 80.

I already had a key to 3615 - 23rd Street and moved right in. I had been paying rent since May 1st. My friend Carole Rhineheimer, "Puck," had found the flat before returning East for a short vacation and had given me the key. We lived together for about five months, before she moved to Marin. So for thirty-eight years, I've never had to look for an apartment in San Francisco!

After buying a queen-size mattress and box spring, the next thing I did was audition for the Choir of Men and Boys at Grace Cathedral --where I sang regularly for twenty-two years, and now sub -- before I sang for twelve years with the Schola Cantorum at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi-- until we were let go four years ago. Now we are an occasional professional concert choir.

(The photo above was from the following year, when I went back to my grandfather's St. Lawrence River Thousand Island summer house, Zavikon, for the last time. The only year I missed --before it was sold-- was 1973. I couldn't justify returning East for a vacation only six weeks after I had moved to California.)

Photo:by Carole Heisey LeFever

The City of San Francisco's 164th Birthday

San Francisco standing tall 164 years later By: Katie Worth Examiner Staff Writer April 16, 2010 Today’s issues are mere trivialities compared to those faced by San Francisco’s first city government, established 160 years ago today. (AP file photo) Think San Francisco has problems? Today’s issues are mere trivialities compared to those faced by San Francisco’s first city government, established 160 years ago today. At that time, The City had grown tenfold in mere months, burned to the ground multiple times, lacked a water or sewer system, and had a pesky problem of people dying left and right and no one wanting to take responsibility for burying them. The city of San Francisco was officially incorporated April 16, 1850. Just a few years before, The City existed as the quiet Mexican pueblo of Yerba Buena, centered around a plaza at what’s now Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. After Capt. John Montgomery sailed into town and claimed it for the United States in 1846, there had been several makeshift governments hastily assembled by groups vying for power — at one point, there were three civil governments and one military government simultaneously competing for authority. Meanwhile, The City’s population grew from several hundred to 20,000 in little more than a year. “There was very little law and order,” said professor Gray Brechin, a historical geographer at UC Berkeley. “It was sort of an overgrown mining camp with a harbor.” The first charter — which would be replaced by new charters several times in the next decade — established the southern boundary of The City in the empty land approximately where 16th Street exists today, and the western boundary approximately where Webster Street runs today. It divided San Francisco into eight wards “so that each ward shall contain as near as may be, the same number of white male inhabitants.” The City had just burned to the ground on Christmas Eve the year before — and was to burn six more times in the next year and a half — so fire abatement was of foremost concern to officials. The charter directed the government “to regulate the storage of gunpowder, tar, pitch rosin and all other combustible materials, and the use of candles and lights in shops, stables and other places.” Though The City was bordered by water on three sides, it didn’t have many reliable water sources, a problem exacerbated by the mushrooming population, according to history professor Robert Cherny of San Francisco State University. “They were housed in ships run aground, in tents, in whatever shanty was available,” he said. “Not surprisingly, there were no fire codes, so this was a very-flammable city.” The first mayor of San Francisco, John Geary, spent much of his first State of The City address considering the fire problem. The City’s first charter would not last long, Cherny said. By the next year, a group of vigilantes took over city government and insisted on a new charter. The same would happen again in 1856, he said. Brechin said that period in San Francisco history is easy to romanticize, but the reality — a city filled with rats, prone to devastating fires, lacking sewage or water systems, and run by a constantly changing set of characters — is that it was a pretty ugly time. “I’m glad I wasn’t there,” he said. “It must have been god-awful.” http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/mailto:kworth@sfexaminer.com City’s first ordinances In the months after the incorporation of San Francisco, the Common Council of Aldermen and the mayor took on the issues of the day. No. 7: Regulating Bar Rooms, etc.: All bar rooms and gaming tables in this city shall be closed at twelve o’clock, midnight, under a penalty of fifty dollars and not more than one hundred dollars. No. 9: Relative to Supplying The City with Water Buckets: That the person or persons occupying any house or other building in this city shall keep in each of said houses or other buildings six water buckets marked with the initials of their names to be used upon occurrence of any fire. No. 23: To Prevent Running Horses in the Public Streets: That no person or persons shall be allowed to race, ride or drive at such speed on any of the public ways within the limits of this city as to endanger or hazard the life or limbs of any person under penalty of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars at the discretion of the recorder. No. 25: Against the Violation of the Sabbath: That no person or persons shall be allowed to play at any game of chance or hazard on the Sabbath under the penalty of not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars. 1850 Mayor: John W. Geary Population: 94,766 Leading industries: Mining, shipping Several earthquakes felt throughout the year City plagued by fires Competing fire companies form; The City adopts rules for proper Fire Department organization First dramatic entertainment, “The Wife,” at Washington Hall Mygatt, Bryant and Co. opened first bath house on Maiden Lane 500-pound grizzly bear caught near Mission Dolores Mayor Geary welcomed new Chinese residents to San Francisco in a ceremony in Portsmouth Square Presidio and other areas reserved for military purposes Grand jury condemned gambling in The City as “a crying evil” and urged that something must be done about prize fighting, along with numerous houses of ill-repute New sidewalk laid along Battery Street Catholic Bishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany arrives 2010 Mayor: Gavin Newsom Population: 808,977 Leading industry: Tourism City, schools cut services as budgets shrink America’s Cup sailing race won Mayor runs for state office Crime lab scandal rocks city Planned Transbay Transit Center will link with high-speed rail from L.A. Santa Clara goes to ballot to steal 49ers City breaks ground on Central Subway U.S. Postal Service closes city branches San Francisco Historical Society

MILLARD FILLMORE ~ January 7, 1800 ~ March 8, 1874

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853 and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the second Vice President to assume the presidency upon the death of a sitting president, succeeding Zachary Taylor, who died of what is thought to be acute gastroenteritis. Fillmore was never elected president; after serving out Taylor's term, he failed to gain the nomination of the Whigs for president in the 1852 presidential election, and, four years later, in the 1856 presidential election, he again failed to win election as the Know Nothing Party and Whig candidate.

image & text:wikipedia.com

Millard Fillmore has a reputation of being one of the worst U.S. Presidents. At least, he has an interesting street named after him in San Francisco. Lower Fillmore has been revitalized and is trying to make a comeback as a Jazz center. Fillmore Auditorium is the site of many top rated rock concerts. Upper Fillmore is a fashionable shopping area in San Francisco. The most notable accomplishment in the Millard Fillmore administration was probably the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew Perry.

October 17, 1989 ~ Loma Prieta Earthquake

Image:NationalGeographic.com

Today, October 17th, marks the 24th Anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake. That was during the Bay Area World Series between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants. I wasn't watching the game at Candlestick Park because I was in bed with what I thought was an intestinal flu.

I had started the day working at Neiman-Marcus, but was sent home. So I was asleep with my three Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Nell, 'Libet and Dundee (whose ashes reside in my "Buddha Box" -- my Japanese home temple -- along with a small box of Dennis). This was before Frontline, the flea and tick ointment, and my dogs then seemed to have continual flea problems; so I used to sleep in my socks and jogging sweats. (Today I sleep in just a t-shirt.)

I awoke to the bed shaking. Didn't think anything of it at first because three scratching dogs regularly shook the bed. But then it started to bounce up and down, and I noticed a crack appear on my bedroom wall, a little like the Biblical account of the fall of Babylon. In a start I jumped out of bed and stood in the door frame (later learned not to be the safest course to take, particularly in newer buildings -- better to hide under a desk.) All of a sudden, I felt fine -- terrified-- but not ill. I guess the adrenaline rush took care of any minor ailments. In a real emergency, you can't afford to be sick.

My friends Hugh and Miriam Cameron had to leave their home in the Marina District on Divisadero Street. They were only a block away from the collapsed and burning apartment buildings, whose images convinced the rest of the country that San Francisco had been completely destroyed.

My cousin Jim Wiley's house in Aptos was completely wrecked when it was knocked off its foundation. All that was left was the lap pool.

At least our phones still worked-- though the lines were overloaded. That's a principal reason I'm keeping my land line, even though I use my iPhone for most calls. In a major earthquake it's predicted that most cell phones will be inoperable for several days.

SZILARD's Birthday

SAN FRANCISCO'S BIRTHDAY

Engraving:boatingsf.com

Today, January 30th, is the day that the sleepy little village of Yerba Buena changed its name to San Francisco in 1847 (the year before discovery of gold on January 24, 1848; the treaty of Guadelupe Hildago, which ended the Mexican American War, signed a week later on February 2, 1848; then the Gold Rush the following year in 1849—when the population surged from 800 to 80,000 in a single year; and California Statehood in 1850).

I had already known that January 30th was the anniversary of the beheading of Charles I outside Inigo Jones' glorious Banqueting House in Whitehall. But I hadn’t known that Oliver Cromwell was ceremoniously executed twelve years to the day after Charles. He had already been dead for two years! When I first went to the Henry VII chapel at the very end of Westminster Abbey, I was surprised to see a bronze plaque in the floor: "Oliver Cromwell 1659 -1661." What ... he was only two years old? Could this have been the grandson of the great Lord Protector and regicide of Charles I? Well no, it was the old Puritan himself.

He was buried there for two years until the Stuart Restoration. Charles II had him exhumed, beheaded, burned and drawn and quartered, then secretly scattered twelve years to the day after his father's execution ordered by Oliver Cromwell. Nothing like revenge!

Other notable deaths on this day were Crown Prince Rudolf at Meyerling in 1889, and Mahatma Gandhi in 1947.

The day also marked Adolf Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor in 1933 (of all things, on FDR's birthday, after he was elected in November, but before his inauguration in March 1933 – afterwards changed to January 20th because the electorate didn't want to wait so long for a transfer of power, especially during a Depression.)

Until I Googled, I hadn't known that such illustrious figures as FDR, Barbara Tuchman (a great American historian & one of my favorites), the extraordinary Vanessa Redgrave, and Christian Bale shared their birthdays on January 30th.

Today is also the 30th birthday of RM^3, a talented young architect I used to know. He’s now interested in getting more involved with management and real estate. Unfortunately, we had a series of misunderstandings, and no longer have any dealings with each other. RM^3 is a feisty, complex, creative, computer-savvy guy, and it was because of him—his example— that I was inspired to start this blog. Today’s posting is a variation of an email I sent to him on his birthday last year. I wish him well… and a long, good life.

(Today also is an anniversary of sorts for me. Thirty-nine years ago I was prepared to give up everything. Instead, I was given a second chance. I hope I’ve lived up to the promise.)